A Journey Through Isolation, Desperation and Hedonism
For Scott La Force, what began as an examination of restive sexual dysfunction centered on the suburban complacency of 21st century America has become a moment of truth. And now, those of us who happen to be in Portland, Oregon before the end of August can share that moment at the Cock Gallery, where La Force is exhibiting his vision as a photo essay.
We have only seen a handful of the images, but we have a really good feeling about this exhibition and of La Force in general. When he was asked by the Pride Review what his take on gender and sexuality was, he responded:
This is quite a question… there are schools and libraries devoted to gender alone… sexuality less as much but on its way. I suppose the latter part of that suggests that I think sexuality is far extremely misunderstood and underrepresented in our society. Gender at least has the framework for the conversation to have started but it’s still a malnourished conception. I believe that gender is a social construct and that too much emphasis is placed on unhealthy social norms, forcing people into boxes that are unnaturally confining and restrictive to the extent that they prevent evolution. Sexuality is also fluid in a similar way and has the possibility to be expressed and celebrated in ways that most never even imagine while the rest of us are left with fetishizations of stigmatized properties.
About his new show, La Force said, “Cum in your Eye is the product of several years of work and a lifetime of experience, living as a 32 year-old queer man in the United States in the early 21st century. It is one hypothetical narrative. It is my narrative. I do not claim to speak for others in the queer community, though I know that many do relate very closely to the work. It addresses issues of loneliness, isolation, striving for community and identity, desperation, hedonism, mythologies and fetishizations of good and evil, sex, drugs, ambivalence and anger.”
We wish we could make it.
Header image by Scott La Force.
